Ash Barty’s 2018 French Open preparation has been derailed, with the world no. 18 forced to retire from the Strasbourg Open semi-finals with back soreness.
Barty was trailing Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 4-6 0-1 when she took a medical timeout for treatment.
She retired shortly thereafter.
.@NastiaPav advances to the @WTA_Strasbourg final!
— WTA (@WTA) May 25, 2018
Ashleigh Barty retires with the 🇷🇺 leading at 6-4, 1-0. pic.twitter.com/g9ruivnGak
“I’ve never had it before but, hopefully with recovery in the next couple of days, I’ll still be able to play at Roland Garros. We’ll see,” Barty said.
“I hurt it yesterday during the match and tried as best I could to recover. I woke up this morning, still with pain, and we tried everything we could.
“I’ve never pulled out of a match in my career before so it was a very tough decision. The pain was getting worse. I have to listen to my body.”
Barty’s maiden WTA clay court semi-final appearance came courtesy of a 7-5 6-4 victory over Qiang Wang and a comprehensive win over Pauline Parmentier for the loss of just four games.
If fit, Barty will open her French Open account against Russian world No.81 Natalia Vikhlyantseva, with the winner lining up a possible clash with Williams in the second round.
This year's French Open marks Williams' first Grand Slam appearance since she won last year's Australian Open, after which she took time off with her pregnancy.
